


I Love You And I Ain't Lion

by Pride_of_Six



Category: Madagascar (Movies)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-10
Updated: 2017-07-10
Packaged: 2018-11-30 06:03:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11457492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pride_of_Six/pseuds/Pride_of_Six
Summary: Alex goes to see a corny romance movie alone and has a bit of a revelation.





	I Love You And I Ain't Lion

**Author's Note:**

> The world I'm imagining here is kind of Zootopia-esque with anthropomorphic animals roaming around and having their own little society and hierarchy, but I don't really explore it in-depth. I'm visualising the characters to look the same as they do in the movie.

Alex was ecstatic. He’d been wanting to watch this movie since he first saw the ad for it months ago, and now here he was. Alone, because none of his stupid friends wanted to watch a cheesy romance movie about lions, but nonetheless excited.

He swivelled his head to check out the rest of the audience in the theatre and saw that all of them were felines of some description. There were cheetahs, pumas, a few of the dwarf-like, smaller, domestic breeds that had to perch on the arm rests in order to see the screen, and of course, naturally, there were a dozen lions like him. His heart gave a little tug when he realised that all of them were either couples or among friends, while he was neither.

Alex felt more than a little dejected as his mind drifted to his stupid friends and how they were too busy to just see one movie that he wanted to see.

He remembered Gloria and Melman’s incredulous look when he’d asked if they wanted to come with him to see, ‘I Love You, And I Ain’t Lion’. The way their faces scrunched up before bursting into a chorus of cackles more befitting hyenas than a hippopotamus and a giraffe resulted in Alex storming off angrily. The movie had gotten really good reviews, so screw them. They could miss out and spend their day doing whatever weird things the couple did in their spare time.

Gloria and Melman were his first stop, but they weren’t his only stop. After the disaster of trying to recruit them into coming to the theatre with him, Alex had dropped by Marty’s to ask his best friend. He had figured that he didn’t even need to ask at this point, because he and Marty did everything together. He’d just rock on by, tell him they were going to see a movie, and that would be the end of it.

Wrong.

Instead, Alex had opened the door and was greeted by the disturbing sight of his friend hanging out and parading around and laughing with a lemur, of all things. Oh, Alex had seen red when he had stumbled upon the scene, because it was obvious what was happening. Marty was replacing him with some weirdo that donned a crown with a gecko on it. Well, they could have each other, for all he cared.

In contrast, maybe Alex had gotten a little bit jealous and roared at the lemur until he ran away screaming. And yes, he had then slammed the door with finality and casually asked Marty if he was interested in seeing a movie. And no, Marty did not say yes like Alex had predicted. Instead, his best friend shouted at him and then made him leave. Alex could have resisted, of course. He was a lion, and his friend was just a zebra… but he was also a very special zebra to him, and it felt wrong to use his strength to his advantage.

After the little scene at Marty’s, he hadn’t even really been in the mood to watch the movie any more, but figured that he’d already bought the tickets, and he needed something, anything, to get his mind off of how angry he felt at having his best friend hanging out with some strange lemur without even letting him know.

So here he was, sitting in a theatre, alone and surrounded by happy couples and happy friends and wishing he had someone beside him right now apart from empty seats.

“This seat taken?” somebody asked, as though reading his thoughts, and Alex muttered a low growl that was supposed to signal ‘go away’, in contrast to what he actually wanted, but instead the couple which had moved in sat down next to him.

“Don’t be such a sour pus,” the other half of the couple commented. Alex’s eyes snapped up and he did a double take as he recognised the undeniable silhouette of Gloria and Melman taking a seat next to him.

“Wha—?” he uttered, unintelligibly, but the duo just sat down without any explanation and watched the series of pre-movie ads which Alex always tuned out. His heart did a little something as he swung his head around to look past Gloria’s body to see if Marty had made it, only for said heart to break when he saw that his best friend hadn’t turned up.

It was then that Alex realised he didn’t want to watch this movie with just anybody. He didn’t want to watch a corny romance film alone, but he didn’t want to watch a corny romance film with friends. He wanted to watch ‘I Love You, And I Ain’t Lion’ with someone very special; his other half, in fact. He looked down, dejected, as he understood that he’d managed to drive away his best friend just because he wanted him to himself. The movie started playing, but Alex’s heart wasn’t in it any more as so many feelings engulfed him.

The person behind him started to kick at his chair, interrupting his feelings, and Alex stood furiously. He was ready to roar at them, to take out his anger and frustration on a random, unsuspecting person because he could.

Instead, he turned and was shocked dumbfounded. He would recognise that silhouette anywhere; the black and white strips more closely resembling black and slightly less black in the dark of the theatre, but there was no questioning it. Marty had come.

“Marty!” he shouted out in joy, and before he could stop himself he had vaulted over his seat and into the row behind, smothering his friend in a crushing hug.

Every single person in the theatre shushed him, and Alex released his friend with reluctance before taking the (fortunately empty) seat next to his best friend.

“I’m sorry, Marty,” Alex assured him, not quite sure why he’d gone into a downward spiral when he knew, just knew, that his friend would forgive him. That was one of the reasons Alex loved him, was because he was so understanding.

And just like that, Alex’s world tilted on its axis as he reran his own thoughts. Because Alex did in-fact love Marty, there was no questioning it. Suddenly so many years of angst and possessive friendship made sense. The way he’d always kept Marty away from any other prospective friends and experiences because Alex was all he really needed. The way he never, ever tired of hearing about his friends’ day, even if it turned out to be a carbon-copy of the day prior. The way he would dream at night of not an anonymous body warming his bed, but rather that of his best friend.

How the hell did Alex not realise it sooner?

“It’s alright, Alex,” Marty whispered, hoof landing in Alex’s hand in an intimate sort of gesture, “Let’s just enjoy the movie.”

Needless to say, when the lion and the lioness kissed at the end of the film, and the credits rolled up with ‘I Love You, And I Ain’t Lion’ in huge, bold letters before the cast members, so did Alex and Marty.

**Author's Note:**

> You can read this as they're just friends or you can read it as they're getting together. And the lemur is implied King Julien. Thanks for reading.


End file.
